Koto no ha no utsurishi aki mo suginureba wagami shigure to furu namida kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

言の葉のうつりし秋も過ぎぬれば
我が身時雨とふる涙かな

Roma-ji: Koto no ha no utsurishi aki mo suginureba wagami shigure to furu namida kana
English Translation: The autumn when your
leaves of words changed their color
has passed away too,
and I myself, as cold rain,
fall in tears and grow old.
Meaning: Now that the autumn when your words faded and changed has passed, I myself become the cold rain of early winter, falling in tears and growing old.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1319

Headnote: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the second poem of the sequence of love's grief sung through autumn imagery. The autumn when your words faded has passed, the speaker says, and I myself become the cold rain, falling in tears and growing old. According to the headnote, it was submitted to the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Michitomo, Commander of the Right Gate Guards," is Minamoto no Michitomo. A son of the Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika and elder brother of Minamoto no Michiteru, he was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū; Commander of the Right Gate Guards was his office when the collection was compiled.
The foundation poem is Ono no Komachi's poem in Love Poems V of the Kokinshū, "Now that I myself have grown old in the falling cold rain, even your leaves of words have faded and changed."

The first line, "koto no ha no," likens words to leaves. It is the same first line as Ise's poem, 1241, where too the fading of leaves of words was paired with the cold rain.
The second line, "utsurishi aki mo," means "the autumn when your words faded and changed." The autumn when leaves change color is overlaid with a change of heart.
The third line, "suginureba," means "since it has passed."
The fourth line, "wagami shigure to," takes up the foundation poem's "wagami shigure ni" and likens the speaker to the cold rain.
In the last line, "furu namida kana," "furu" is a pivot word meaning both the rain "falling" and oneself "growing old." In the foundation poem the leaves of words faded because the speaker had grown old; here the fading of words comes first and only then does the speaker grow old as the cold rain, reversing the order.
Author: Minamoto no Michitomo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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